GPS Insight is a com¬≠mer¬≠cial and gov¬≠ern¬≠ment fleet track¬≠ing solu¬≠tion. We help cus¬≠tomers to save mon¬≠ey by help¬≠ing them become more effi¬≠cient, sav¬≠ing fuel from reduced idling, curb¬≠ing their speed¬≠ing and odd hour‚Äôs usage, and gen¬≠er¬≠al¬≠ly mak¬≠ing their dri¬≠vers more account¬≠able.

GPS Insight was found¬≠ed almost ten years ago. We knew that even¬≠tu¬≠al¬≠ly we would become big enough to accom¬≠mo¬≠date large, mul¬≠ti-thou¬≠sand unit fleets. We ini¬≠tial¬≠ly had our two and ten and five unit deals but we always kept in mind that even¬≠tu¬≠al¬≠ly we would need to scale and accom¬≠mo¬≠date very large fleets. There is a big dif¬≠fer¬≠ence between your aver¬≠age, every day dots on a map play¬≠er in this space, which does great for some¬≠body with ten or twelve trucks, and GPS Insight which is able to accom¬≠mo¬≠date a three, four, five thou¬≠sand unit fleet. There are a lot of reports that are nec¬≠es¬≠sary to take care of a fleet that large ‚Äď a lot of alerts, a lot of admin¬≠is¬≠tra¬≠tion, a lot of map¬≠ping and API require¬≠ments that we have real¬≠ly honed our prod¬≠uct toward.

We still take care of small fleets, it is still a great prod¬≠uct for them but, gen¬≠er¬≠al¬≠ly speak¬≠ing the evo¬≠lu¬≠tion of GPS Insight has been to accom¬≠mo¬≠date those very large enter¬≠prise fleets.

Your prod¬≠uct feels extreme¬≠ly visu¬≠al and quite sim¬≠ple as far as look¬≠ing at where the fleets are, etc. Could you speak to that a lit¬≠tle bit?

GPS Insight is unique in that we have a dash¬≠board which is high¬≠ly con¬≠fig¬≠urable by the end user. Every user can drag and drop what¬≠ev¬≠er it is that they real¬≠ly need to see on a dai¬≠ly basis onto mul¬≠ti¬≠ple dash¬≠boards and then they can pull them up on whichev¬≠er dash¬≠board they need at that moment. It is high¬≠ly con¬≠fig¬≠urable but it is also very sim¬≠ple out of the gate so you can make it as sim¬≠ple as you like, you can make it as com¬≠plex as you like.

The inter¬≠face itself is high¬≠ly usable and very real time so that helps with the dis¬≠patch, but we always have a num¬≠ber of cus¬≠tomers that use our APIs which aren‚Äôt visu¬≠al, you don‚Äôt see them. It is just our servers talk¬≠ing to their servers; either they are ask¬≠ing us for data or sub¬≠scrib¬≠ing to it and we send it to them wher¬≠ev¬≠er an alert occurs, when¬≠ev¬≠er there is a geo-fence infrac¬≠tion, when¬≠ev¬≠er some¬≠one speeds per¬≠haps, or on a night¬≠ly basis if they just want a raw data dump of all of their vehicle‚Äôs activ¬≠i¬≠ty.

What is real¬≠ly new and excit¬≠ing this year that you are telling fleet man¬≠agers about and what are you hear¬≠ing from them?

I think one of the biggest things that is chang¬≠ing is fleet man¬≠agers real¬≠ize that they real¬≠ly have to have a GPS fleet track¬≠ing solu¬≠tion. There has been some hes¬≠i¬≠tance to adopt in pri¬≠or years and at this point, as evi¬≠denced by all of the play¬≠ers at NAFA I&E, it is real¬≠ly becom¬≠ing a must-have item. I think the shift seems to be that com¬≠pa¬≠nies are no longer focused so much on absolute price and get¬≠ting the cheap¬≠est, least expen¬≠sive prod¬≠uct, but get¬≠ting the one that deliv¬≠ers val¬≠ue and the most return on invest¬≠ment.

In terms of tech¬≠ni¬≠cal addi¬≠tions that are com¬≠ing into most prod¬≠ucts, there are a lot of diag¬≠nos¬≠tics, a lot of dri¬≠ver behav¬≠ior type quan¬≠tifi¬≠ca¬≠tion and report¬≠ing. In addi¬≠tion to adding those types of capa¬≠bil¬≠i¬≠ties to our prod¬≠ucts, we also con¬≠tin¬≠ue to focus on what will save our cus¬≠tomers more mon¬≠ey. There are a lot of effi¬≠cien¬≠cies, a lot of automa¬≠tion that real¬≠ly is fun¬≠da¬≠men¬≠tal¬≠ly the most impor¬≠tant thing. Of course, risk and effi¬≠cien¬≠cy are great to be able to get your head around and improve with a GPS track¬≠ing solu¬≠tion, but ulti¬≠mate¬≠ly fleet man¬≠agers want to save mon¬≠ey whether they are com¬≠mer¬≠cial or gov¬≠ern¬≠ment. It is a big tick¬≠et item and that is what we real¬≠ly try to strive to help our cus¬≠tomers with.

What would you say would be the biggest objec¬≠tion that a fleet man¬≠ag¬≠er who needs to install this sort of track¬≠ing solu¬≠tion might have and how would you over¬≠come that?

Every¬≠body has their own objec¬≠tion. Of course, dif¬≠fer¬≠ent ver¬≠ti¬≠cal mar¬≠kets have dif¬≠fer¬≠ent con¬≠cerns. Some¬≠times it is dri¬≠ver response to the Big Broth¬≠er aspects. A lot of times you can over¬≠come that by say¬≠ing ‚Äď we are help¬≠ing you to prove that you are doing a great job that we know you are. We are help¬≠ing to make you more effi¬≠cient so we can all be more prof¬≠itable, and so that you can hope¬≠ful¬≠ly make more mon¬≠ey. But on top of that, I would say the oth¬≠er big objec¬≠tion is ‚Äď I can‚Äôt afford to take my vehi¬≠cles out of ser¬≠vice for that long for an install. A typ¬≠i¬≠cal install is only, per¬≠haps, fif¬≠teen to thir¬≠ty min¬≠utes. If you can take your vehi¬≠cle out of ser¬≠vice for about thir¬≠ty min¬≠utes and hope¬≠ful¬≠ly over the next year using GPS track¬≠ing gain at least mul¬≠ti¬≠ple hours if not days‚Äô worth of pro¬≠duc¬≠tiv¬≠i¬≠ty out of that vehi¬≠cle, I think that is a no-brain¬≠er.

Do you have any par¬≠tic¬≠u¬≠lar suc¬≠cess sto¬≠ries that you would like to share with us?

We have many dif¬≠fer¬≠ent suc¬≠cess sto¬≠ries. Every¬≠thing from find¬≠ing out about bad employ¬≠ees to just sim¬≠ply sav¬≠ing lots of mon¬≠ey. One that comes to mind in par¬≠tic¬≠u¬≠lar is a large one thou¬≠sand unit fleet that asked us to help them save mon¬≠ey using a new tech¬≠nol¬≠o¬≠gy that we devel¬≠oped for them in about three days. We start¬≠ed send¬≠ing their dri¬≠vers mes¬≠sages every time they left the vehi¬≠cle on for more than sev¬≠en min¬≠utes. The first day we launched this we sent ten thou¬≠sand mes¬≠sages to their rough¬≠ly thou¬≠sand dri¬≠vers. They instant¬≠ly curbed 95 per¬≠cent of their unnec¬≠es¬≠sar¬≠i¬≠ly idling, sav¬≠ing them about $100,000 in fuel costs the first and sec¬≠ond month and then beyond that.

In addi¬≠tion to that $100,000, their dri¬≠vers were doing their job, not sit¬≠ting in a cab with the air con¬≠di¬≠tion¬≠ing run¬≠ning. They are get¬≠ting more effi¬≠cient, there was less over¬≠time, and there was more cus¬≠tomer sat¬≠is¬≠fac¬≠tion. Ulti¬≠mate¬≠ly, that cus¬≠tomer achieved 1,000 % first year return on invest¬≠ment using GPS Insight. They saved $5,000,000 on a $500,000 invest¬≠ment.

We also have a very large 1200 unit cable com¬≠pa¬≠ny that is nation¬≠al in pres¬≠ence. They want¬≠ed to focus on safe¬≠ty so they used reports to help super¬≠vi¬≠sors coach their dri¬≠vers on how to curb speed¬≠ing. They took their post¬≠ed speed vio¬≠la¬≠tions down by 98 per¬≠cent with¬≠in the first year. The byprod¬≠uct of that was a $500,000 fuel sav¬≠ings. So, by keep¬≠ing their dri¬≠vers from speed¬≠ing rel¬≠a¬≠tive to the post¬≠ed speed lim¬≠it, not only did they make them safer but they saved rough¬≠ly a half a mil¬≠lion dol¬≠lars, which is about the cost of that prod¬≠uct for that cus¬≠tomer for the first year.

What are your next steps?

This year, GPS Insight is launch¬≠ing two major, new enhance¬≠ments to the prod¬≠uct. One is we have com¬≠plete¬≠ly revamped our map¬≠ping and made it much bet¬≠ter. The new map¬≠ping is a huge improve¬≠ment. It is as real time as it can be, very easy to admin¬≠is¬≠ter and cus¬≠tomize to your exact require¬≠ment as an end user.

The sec¬≠ond thing that we are adding to the prod¬≠uct is a roll-up report which allows you to tra¬≠verse your hier¬≠ar¬≠chy. You might have sev¬≠er¬≠al thou¬≠sand vehi¬≠cles in all of these dif¬≠fer¬≠ent regions, dis¬≠tricts, cities, states ‚ÄĒ what¬≠ev¬≠er you might quan¬≠ti¬≠fy your vehi¬≠cles as. We now have a matrix that will allow you to col¬≠or code what¬≠ev¬≠er it is that is inter¬≠est¬≠ing to you from a key per¬≠for¬≠mance indi¬≠ca¬≠tor ‚ÄĒ a KPI stand¬≠point. If you are inter¬≠est¬≠ed in idling as a per¬≠cent¬≠age of the total and red is more than three per¬≠cent, we can give you a nice con¬≠sol¬≠i¬≠dat¬≠ed way of look¬≠ing at mil¬≠lions of miles worth of data so that you can just drill down on your hot spots, find your dif¬≠fi¬≠cul¬≠ties and fix them.

That will be very cus¬≠tomiz¬≠able by our end cus¬≠tomers. If they want to add a met¬≠ric which is the num¬≠ber of cus¬≠tomer vis¬≠its in min¬≠utes rel¬≠a¬≠tive to the num¬≠ber of ven¬≠dor vis¬≠its absolute, that might be real¬≠ly key to their for¬≠ward prof¬≠itabil¬≠i¬≠ty. We can help them to quan¬≠ti¬≠fy that in a quick, easy, drill down man¬≠ner so they can find cost¬≠ly issues before they turn into a lack of prof¬≠it.

BIO

Rob Donat
Founder and CEO, GPS Insight

I have 2 boys (13 & 11) and one daugh¬≠ter (7) and my wife and I live in Scotts¬≠dale where GPS Insight is head¬≠quar¬≠tered (our 75+ employ¬≠ees are locat¬≠ed here, as well as in 1 oth¬≠er office in Chica¬≠go and a few home-based loca¬≠tions across the coun¬≠try).

I grad¬≠u¬≠at¬≠ed from the Uni¬≠ver¬≠si¬≠ty of Illi¬≠nois, spent some time on active duty in the Army and then in the Guard as an Artillery Offi¬≠cer, held some high tech, data¬≠base administration/management jobs, and com¬≠plet¬≠ed two grad¬≠u¬≠ate degrees in Finance and Com¬≠put¬≠er Sci¬≠ence at DePaul in Chica¬≠go. I start¬≠ed Sedo¬≠nat¬≠e¬≠ch, a con¬≠sult¬≠ing com¬≠pa¬≠ny in 2000, and con¬≠sult¬≠ed to Hedge Funds and Dot-Com‚Äôs for years, even¬≠tu¬≠al¬≠ly mov¬≠ing from Chica¬≠go to Scotts¬≠dale. At that point, I found¬≠ed GPS Insight.